With less than two months and only 28 games remaining, the Detroit Pistons don’t have long to salvage something from a miserable season.
Their players all have something to prove after the All-Star break, whether it’s Cade Cunningham showing that he is “that guy” for an extended stretch or guys like Troy Brown Jr fighting for a future job.
The Detroit Pistons only have six players under guaranteed contracts for next season, so these last games are a tryout if nothing else.
It’s not just the players who have hadsomething to prove.
Head coach Monty Williams has been under fire for his puzzling lineup choices, including his decision to bench Jaden Ivey and the non-sensical 13-player rotations he has been trotting out all season.
He too has just 28 games to prove he is part of the future, though his position is safer than many of the players.
But no coach is completely safe in the NBA, as we found out today, as the Nets fired head coach Jacque Vaughn:
The Brooklyn Nets have relieved Jacque Vaughn of his head coaching duties, team says. Full statement from GM Sean Marks below. pic.twitter.com/V8caouE25b
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) February 19, 2024
This isn't completely surprising (other than the timing), as the Nets have been disappointing this season, but it does raise a fair question: Is Monty Williams next?
Will the Detroit Pistons fire Monty Williams?
It’s hard to see Monty Williams getting fired this offseason, even after all his struggles and the fact that he is presiding over what could be the worst team in league history.
He survived an embarrassing 28-game losing streak already, and if that didn’t do it, it’s hard to see what would.
To be fair, this season is not all on him, not by any stretch of the imagination, as he wasn’t given a winning roster and GM Troy Weaver didn’t do him any favors in the offseason.
Williams is also owed five more years of guaranteed money after this one, so owner Tom Gores, who was Monty’s biggest advocate, is not likely to admit his mistake and eat that much money.
But what if the Pistons continue to look like a dysfunctional mess down the home stretch? They played the part in the final two games before the All-Star break. You could blame tired legs and superior opponents, but the Pistons looked checked out.
We’ll see if that continues or if they can return with some fresh energy, but Williams if completely loses this team, it’s hard to see how he’ll get it back.
I think Monty will get another chance barring anything catastrophic (beyond the longest losing streak in history and a player being arrested), but if it has become clear he has lost the locker-room, I wouldn’t be shocked if these are his final two months in Detroit.
What can Williams do to save his job with the Detroit Pistons?
Easy.
The team has to look like he has a plan. Williams has to have tighter rotations that feature heavy minutes for the young core together. He needs to figure out the relationship between Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey and get them cooking together. He needs to stagger their minutes so that one of them is almost always on the floor and stop with these stubborn, idiotic all-bench lineups that kill the team every time.
He can’t keep running out guys like Evan Fournier, Shake Milton and Malachi Flynn for big minutes when they aren’t going to be on the team next season.
There needs to be some visible direction, some hope and some momentum built for the offseason so that a free agent might actually want to come join his team.
Tom Gores certainly doesn’t want to eat five years of what was the biggest coaching contact in NBA history at the time, but he can’t waste another season waiting for Williams to figure it out, so these last two months are important for both him and the team.